Ripple edit
Also known as: ripple trim, ripple delete
A trim that closes the gap it leaves, moving everything after it earlier, so the sequence shortens instead of leaving a hole.
Updated
What it means
A ripple edit changes a clip and the timeline together. Trimming the end of one shot pulls every following clip earlier by the same amount. One operation, two effects.
The alternative leaves a gap. A plain trim shortens the clip and keeps the positions, which is correct when sync matters and wrong when the sequence should tighten instead. Both operations exist for that reason.
It is the counterpart of a Roll edit, which moves a boundary between two clips without changing the total length. One changes duration; the other moves a join and leaves the duration alone.
How it works in practice
It is the tool for tightening a Rough cut. Removing Dead time from twenty clips with ripple trims shortens the sequence without reordering anything, so the structure survives the pass. A tighter edit comes out of the same clip choices.
Keyboard shortcuts are what make it usable. A ripple trim bound to a key turns a tightening pass into a few minutes rather than a drag-and-drop exercise across a long timeline.
Audio needs watching. Music on a separate track does not ripple with the picture unless it is linked, which is normally what you want and occasionally not. Checking sync afterwards is the habit.
What to watch out for
Rippling with music in place breaks alignment. Every cut after the trim moves off the Beat grid, so a tightening pass belongs before the music is locked rather than after it.
It also ripples things you forgot about. Titles, Lower third graphics and sound effects on other tracks either move or do not, and either behaviour can be the wrong one.
Large ripples are hard to undo mentally. Removing two seconds from the middle changes where everything later sits, and the sequence a reviewer saw yesterday no longer matches the notes they sent back.
How RawClip handles it
Cut points are produced already tightened, since each clip is trimmed to its action before the sequence is assembled. Adjusting a finished result on a timeline afterwards is ordinary editing work, with the same ripple behaviour any application already provides.